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Friday, 17 June 2011

The Washstand

I love antique washstands. They are a perfect size, they have tons of storage, and they are generally pretty. I got a hold of an old one recently and it had been well loved and strangely stained and stripped.

Now I don't fancy myself some visionary but I did take two semesters of Interior Design school......yes that is dripping with sarcastic smugness..... I had to drop out because I was so painfully pregnant that waddling to school carrying endless carpet or stone samples was out of the question.....

So this is what I did to it

It will now sit on the landing at the top of the stairs holding a small lamp and storing some strange odds and ends including the iron.

3 comments:

I love this! You are so smart and talented. I am contemplating two big projects with hand-me-downs from my mum but I have never sanded or painted anything in my life! How ling did this take you? Was it very difficult? Where did you get those lovely pulls?

Catherine - generally speaking you don't need to sand much...depends on the condition of the piece and what has been done to it in the past. This piece in particular I didn't need to pre-sand....it was in the midst of being stripped when someone gave up and put knobs on it. For furniture I like satin finish paint, it is slightly shinier than eggshell and makes it a little more easy to clean than using a flat. This colour is a warm white from Ben Moore called 'Cloud White'. It is my fav and I have been using it for years as trim a colour. This took me two days but like 1 hr each day.....just waiting in between coats for it to dry enough for the next. It took three coats because it was so dark to begin with AND because I was doing two sides of a door. So I finished the 3 coats on one side and then turned the door over to do the other side which I only bothered to do two coats on because it is the inside. Knobs are from Home Depot, 5 for $14.99 or there abouts. Let me know if you need any help!

About Me

I have been a writer for as long as I remember – stories, diaries, letters and notes that got passed under desks. Now this is the tale of learning to homestead in the big city, attempting to raise a family in a clean and nutritious way, trying be a great mom, a good wife, a helpful friend and contributing world citizen and how to quickly recover from the epic failures of trying all the above. This is my Life as a Mama, Gluten Free Recipe Developer, Food Writer and Wife